In September 2024, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law the Phone-Free Schools Act, requiring every school district in the state, including charter schools and all county offices of education statewide, to create its own policy aimed at limiting students’ use of phones in schools.

Now, the Mount Diablo Unified School District (MDUSD) is following through, with all of its high schools employing a particular method to get students off their phones: by locking them in a device called the Yondr Pouch.

Yondr Pouches are secure, magnetic, lockable pouches used to store students’ phones, watches and AirPods during the time when they are in class. Across the MDUSD, once students get to school, they turn their devices off, place them in the pouches that they carry with them, and then teachers and faculty check throughout the day to see if the devices have remained inside.

The pouches can only be unlocked at the end of the day, either by the last period teacher or, in some schools, at designated exits with a magnetic unlocking base.

One of the first schools to introduce the product was Mount Diablo High School, now in its second year of employing the Yondr Pouch. According to the Vice Principal Liz Mangelsdorf, “the school is already starting to see a percentage of improvement in students’ overall grades and engagement in classes, with fewer fights and more social engagement between [peers].”

Over at Concord High School, which also instituted the pouches this year, students like sophomore Matteo Biduo say they are noticing the difference.

“I didn’t really like them at first, but now I really like them because it’s made my grades improve and it helps me with not being on my phone all day,” said Biduo.

But not everyone has embraced the plan of locking up phones — both for social and academic reasons. 

“I strongly dislike [the pouches] because I use my phone for everything,” said College Park High School sophomore Emili Campos.

“I depend on the iPhone’s calendar, so not having my phone during the day is hard because then I have to wait till the end of the day to add stuff in.” 

As a recent transfer student at College Park, Campos said all of her friends remain at her old school, Concord High, and she isn’t able to communicate with them during lunchtime due to her phone being in the pouch, which makes her feel less socially included.

She also said many students are finding ways to get around the requirement — either by not putting their phones in the pouches, or finding a separate magnet to unlock them, which enables them to still use their devices during school hours. 

“I get [that] they’re supposed to help us, but most of the time teachers don’t even check, so it’s not even necessary at this point,” stated Campos.

In other cases, students can get an accommodation for the Yondr Pouch, which can be closed using a velcro seal rather than a magnet, so they’re able to unlock it if needed in special circumstances. 

For example, if students have a medical disability and need to check their phones — such as someone with diabetes, who needs to continually check their sugar levels — they can use the accommodated version. 

Alternatively, some students may have a doctor’s note or a 504 plan that states that when they need to, they are able to go to the office to have their pouch unlocked. 

“We have kids who have anxiety and need to use their phones, and we can unlock their phones for them. We’ll do whatever they need,” said Rebecca Dell, an English teacher at Concord High. 

Dell said schools understand it can be hard for students to adapt to the major change of losing access to their phones for a number of hours a day. But she has also seen visible upsides to the policy, with fewer conflicts occurring on social media platforms and in person. 

“Fights have gone down, way less from before,” she added. “Kids are actually interacting with each other. They’re talking.” 

Still, not all parents are convinced. Campos’s mother, Monica Hernandez, for example, said that “even though [I] think it’s a good idea to have the pouches for the students to get their work done and pay attention in classes, [I have] reservations because now it’s harder to contact [my daughter] during school.” 

Hernandez said she is concerned that if something were to happen to Campos at school, she would have to wait for the office staff to contact her rather than speaking directly and more quickly with her daughter by phone. 

In some situations, schools are making additional accommodations so parents and their children can speak. 

For instance, College Park Vice Principal Stephanie Marple said their school has “a dedicated student phone that kids can use, [and] sometimes parents do call the office when they want to relay a message to their students.” 

Having a designated student phone in the office has helped alleviate some parents’ worries about not being able to contact their children like they could before the pouches came into use, said Marple.

She also admitted she has seen students finding ways to get around the Yondr Pouch. Marple said she observed students carrying a Walkman around listening to music, while other students grouped together listening to a radio, and even one group of students communicated through walkie-talkies.

Nonetheless, the process of weaning young people from their phones at school appears to have begun, and according to Dell at Concord High, it should become more normalized with time.

“As the years progress, it will get easier and better because they’ll get used to not having it,” Dell said.